Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism—From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond, by E. J. Dionne, Jr.

No political movement happens in a vacuum, but often the roots of today’s headlines extend so far into the past they seem to arrive, fully formed, out of nowhere. Dionne, Jr., traces the origins of the modern-day Tea Party and its successors to the 1960s, especially the civil rights movement, President Johnson’s Great Society, and Barry Goldwater’s insurrection during the 1964 campaign. With a staggeringly encyclopedic knowledge of politics over the last 50 years, Dionne, Jr., analyzes how fringe voters and policies have migrated into the mainstream conservative movement even as the country as a whole drifted further to the left. With the political landscape of America in turmoil, it’s more important than ever to get a handle on the roots of modern-day politics.